


Haunted

by Artemis97



Category: Columbine - Fandom, Dylan Klebold - Fandom, Eric Harris - Fandom, True Crime - Fandom
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:21:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27753001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemis97/pseuds/Artemis97
Summary: Amara sets in motion an exciting new life when she moves to the state of Colorado to attend the University of Denver. Everything changes drastically when she finds out that her recently acquired home hides a dark secret. Eric Harris' ghost will haunt Amara until she agrees to help him. After all, only her can aid Eric and Dylan find peace on "the other side."I DO NOT condone what E&D did on April 20, 1999. This story is all fiction, and some aspects of it might not even be accurate, but I hope you enjoy reading it.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 10





	1. Family Ties

**Author's Note:**

> This story is intended for the people that like to read this kind of stuff. If you don't like the content please go on and read a different work. Mean comments are unnecessary, nice comments are very welcome :)

The weather was unbearable in Huntington Beach all year long... or was it just me? I had always been a sucker for fall, crisp air, cold nights, scary movies, bonfires, falling leaves, pumpkin patches, apple orchards, corn mazes, hot coffee, hoodies, candy corn, and especially Halloween. I was more than happy to know that I wouldn't have to suffer in this annoying climate for much longer.

I was about to become a student at the University of Denver, in Colorado.

My name is Amara, and Caroline is my sister. I graduated high school in the spring of 2019, and I was going to follow her steps by attending the same university as her.

It was the summer of 2019, and Caroline had been living on campus for one year already. Our father decided that it was a good idea to buy a house in the outskirts of Denver so we could have our own place close to school, and more importantly, so that he didn't have to waste tons of money paying rent for dorms.

Born and raised in California, we had always lived by the beach, but I hated it. Life was too expensive there, yes even more expensive than in Colorado. Although there were hundreds of schools in California that might have been better than the University of Denver, it was very hard for dad to pay for the tuitions, it had already been hard last year with my sister. I can only imagine how harder it would be to pay for it now that I was joining her too.

Our father Wallace was a single parent, mom had been out of the picture since Caroline and I were little and there was nothing worth remembering about her. Wallace had tried his best, and maybe he had failed a few times, but not because he chose to. It had been because he was learning along the way and he had done a decent job raising us on his own. Eventually, he became the best father, and now at fifty years old, he was the sweetest-grumpiest man ever.

After settling us in our new house, dad was going to come back to California for a few more months. His plan was to eventually sell our childhood home and move to Colorado with us, so that we could all live together. Also, he would enjoy his retirement once Caroline and I decided to move out on our own, in a few more years. Littleton was the name of the city that we were about to call "home," and dad instantly fell in love with it while researching for places to live, when he found an article that read: "This small Denver suburb is constantly ranked one of the best places to live in the country."

The best thing about it, is that it was a suburb only twenty minutes away from downtown Denver, and literally the same distance from the university that we were attending. Living in a city with less than 50,000 people seemed like the perfect idea to me, and let's not forget about the nice weather, even in the worst months of summer, the nightly temperatures of Littleton could drop below seventy degrees.

Needless to say, I was very excited for our new home and especially about starting my career, because high school had sucked. It was a place full of stupid and immature people. Not that I was the most responsible girl in the planet, but at least I knew what I wanted in life.

Caroline flew back to Huntington Beach as soon as her last summer course was over, in order to pack whatever stuff she still had left in her childhood bedroom. Her major was Business Administration, and I was following the same path. It was going to be easier and cheaper, because I would literally have to take the same classes that she had taken so far. That way, I could take advantage of using the same textbooks and I already knew what to expect from each course, or certain professors. We even registered to attend one class together, and we would try doing the same thing for as long as we could with our basic courses, since it wasn't required that we took those at a certain semester or classification.

"It's time dude." Caroline's voice rumbled in my head like an incessant hammer.

"Damn girl, you can be annoying." I replied, as I rubbed my eyes and got out of bed.

The day had finally arrived, it was the second week of August and we would be in our new home in no more than twenty hours. The further our father drove away from California, the happier I felt, I was finally going to leave this hot ass state behind, hopefully forever. My birthday was getting close too and I was tremendously excited to celebrate it in a new state, in a new school, in a new city with a wonderful weather. We stopped along the way about three times, to eat, rest and to fill the gas tank, of course.

We arrived to Littleton on a chilly morning and dad drove straight to the house, located at 8276 Reed St. He was utterly excited about showing us our new home, and Caroline and I weren't too thrilled when we finally saw the outside of the house... but it was ours. It was a three-level home in a cul de sac, it seemed somewhat deteriorated compared to the rest of the houses in the block, it had a grayish blue color that definitely needed to be repainted. Dad happily showed us around, four-bedrooms, four-bathrooms, and it even had a basement... I had only seen like two basements in my whole life.

Our father had been traveling back and forward prior to our arrival in order to remodel the house, and he had done as much as possible, but there was still more to do, because apparently very few people had lived here in the last twenty years.

"This house could easily be haunted." said Caroline while looking around with a snotty attitude.

"Shut up dude, dad can't hear you saying this. He did the best that he could for us." I mentioned.

"Yeah, you say that because you have always been that creepy girl, obsessed with those true crime documentaries, and all that paranormal stuff."

"Whatever, there's literally no such thing as a haunted house Care."

However, I did wonder why no one had really lived here for so long, it was a nice house, somewhat old and decayed... but nice. Even kind of big for just two people, but like I said, dad was planning on moving here eventually. With the three of us, the house wouldn't feel so empty. 

Caroline chose the upstairs master bedroom right away, and she wanted me to pick the bedroom next to hers, but I really liked the basement, it was a large space where we could even have a small entertaining room. It had its own restroom and bedroom; it would feel like having my own studio.

"See, you're very creepy." said Caroline.

"I rather not be close to you." I said teasing too.

As expected, we were extremely tired that afternoon and I took a nap as soon as my father brought my bed down to the basement. When I woke up, Caroline was trying to arrange the few pieces of furniture that we had for the living room, she mentioned that our father had gone to buy something to eat.

We finished unpacking that same weekend, and the three of us even went to the university so that Caroline could tour me around, but mostly so that she could get her car and whatever stuff she had left in her dorm.

Before going back to California, Wallace gave us tons of instructions of how to behave, and how to take care of the house now that we were going to live on our own. He said that he better not find out that we were doing some of those crazy college parties or something worse. He expected the best from us, he wanted us to prove to him that we were sufficiently mature and responsible. To be honest, I was totally ok with everything that he had asked, I had come here to put all the effort towards my education. However, at the same time, I didn't know if I could change my mind once I began living the so called "university life."

Also, our father had mentioned that the neighbors next door was a nice, older couple that had been living there since the houses were built. He even mentioned their last name, but as usual, I couldn't remember it. Apparently, dad had met them the first day that he arrived to this house. According to him, they were good people and we could trust them, or ask for help if we needed anything. Once our father left, Care and I were bummed out and spent a few days in the only couch that we had in our living room... watching Netflix and consuming massive amounts of ice cream.

We had one week left before starting the new semester, my sister was unbothered, she already knew how everything worked and what to expect... but I was new, I was attending college for the first time in my life and It felt like shit had gotten real. I had to enjoy my last days off. Although, there didn't seem to be many fun things to do in this small town, it was a historic place, I loved the weather, everything was completely different from California, and I already knew that I wasn't going to miss anything from my old home, from my old life. Only dad of course, but he had promised that he would try to visit about once a month, despite having to drive for so many hours.

During that week, Caroline and I cleaned the house deeply. Dad had done a good job remodeling, but more than anything he just fixed what was clearly broken. The house had a gloomy vibe, yet I didn't think much of it, it probably was only because the sun didn't really come in directly through most of the windows.

Anyways, while cleaning the master closet for my sister, I found some documents that belonged to the house, it contained the square footage, initial value, name of previous owners, (which I didn't even care to pay attention to) and also the year that it was built: 1988.

"No wonder why it seems so freaking aged." I thought.

I told Caroline about my findings and she wasn't surprised about the house being thirty years old, our father wouldn't have been able to buy us a newer house, and much less make the monthly payment for it.

The rest of the days went by fast, and when I least expected it, I had already attended school for about three weeks. Dad couldn't make it for my birthday, but my sister took me out to eat, and we returned home soon since we had class early the next day. There was a cute cake waiting for me in the kitchen, not only that, but she gifted me the iPhone 11 that had just been released. We also drank some wine, I felt like a total adult. Caroline had recently turned twenty-one, but I was barely nineteen now, and the fact that she allowed me to consume alcohol because it was my birthday... made me feel delighted.

Soon, September was gone too, Caroline and I had gotten used to live in this house. There were noises everywhere, the wooden stairs creaked, the water pipes made weird sounds throughout the night, and the doors crackled on their own... but it truly felt like a home, and the neighborhood was a nice one for sure. I had seen a few of the neighbors, most of them were older people that lived on their own since their kids had grown up, gone away for college or gotten married a long time ago.

So far, we hadn't had the opportunity to see our next-door neighbors to introduce ourselves formally. We had only spotted them when leaving for school a few mornings. However, they had been nice enough to bring a pretty basket with baked goods made by them. They left it at the front door with a welcome note, and everything was delicious. Now, more than ever, I was expecting to have some time to formally introduce ourselves, to thank them for the basket and for being such good neighbors.

"Did you eat the cookies? They could be poisoned." said Caroline with a teasing tone.

"Why would they be?" I said with my mouth full, as I chewed multiple cookies. "Dad said these people are really nice, and I believe him. He can always feel the vibe of others."

"You and your stupid vibes." she said, still teasing.

I kept eating more cookies as I ignored my annoying but adorable sister...


	2. Disturbing Behavior

October, the best month of the year had finally arrived. Sometime during the first week, two of my classes had been canceled and I could go home early. Caroline told me to get an Uber because she still had a long day ahead of her.

The cold weather was approaching, and it was noticeable inside our home too since the heater didn't work very well. I didn't mind, I even enjoyed it, but Caroline hated it. We were so distinctive in many ways, yet I couldn't live without her.

As soon as I got home from school, I checked all the doors, windows and rooms just to make sure no one had broken in or something. I was so used to dad being home, that I felt somewhat insecure without him. It was the only thing that I didn't enjoy about living alone in a new state with my sister. Although, dad was a little grumpy sometimes, I'd rather have him by our side than a thousand miles away.

I changed into comfy clothes, an oversized hoodie, sweatpants, and slippers.

Since I didn't have homework for the day, I cheerfully played Nintendo Switch. I was in my bedroom, intending to win a Fortnite solo when I thought that I saw someone walk by with the corner of the eye. I turned around quickly and obviously, no one was there. I didn't panic too much because it could have been anything, probably my sight was tired from playing too much. I still toured the house once again, just to make sure everything was right and didn't think about it anymore.

Later on, I went to the kitchen to make a sandwich. Caroline hadn't come back yet, and I already felt hungry. I walked, still playing Fortnite and hardly seeing where I was stepping. Once I reached the fridge, I left the game aside and prepared my sandwich. I gave it a bite and proceeded to put the dirty knife on the sink... A second later, I saw someone through the window, in our fucking backyard.

It was a boy, probably not older than me. He was wearing a white t-shirt, black cargo pants, combat boots, and a black cap backwards. He didn't seem to be bothered by the cold, despite being out in that chilly October evening.

I stood in shock wondering why the hell was this person in my backyard. He was looking at the ground, muddling the dirt with one of his feet like trying to find something. Instead of running to the door and ask him what the hell was he doing there, I kept observing him with the sandwich in my hand and with my mouth wide open for what felt like an eternity.

After just a couple of seconds, he turned around and looked at me dead in the eye. My first instinct was to duck down, but at the same time I remembered that I was in my house and this boy was a fucking intruder. His physical appearance was hard to ignore. Although he was thin and not very tall, he had brown hair, green eyes, a pretty nose, lips to die for, and a mischievous smile plastered on his face. He looked down at the ground again after inspecting me for a moment, acting unaware of being trespassing a private property.

Fuming, I ran to the sliding door, which was just a few feet away from me. This guy was about to feel freaking sorry for trespassing into the backyard, I opened the door prepared to yell at him. I looked around, he wasn't there anymore, I stepped outside fast, trying to find him jumping over the wooden fence but he was nowhere to be seen. I hesitantly walked all the way to the front, maybe I could find him in the street.

I saw Caroline parking on the driveway and felt relieved despite still being bothered and even somewhat scared about having an intruder somewhere in the property. Caroline asked me what the hell was I doing outside in slippers. I explained to her and asked if she hadn't seen the guy when she got here.

"He must have left through somewhere else because I didn't see anyone," she said.

She seemed worried too, and I even got scolded like a little girl for running to the front while leaving the back door wide open.

"What if he was still on the backyard and went inside the house as soon as you came to the front?" she yapped.

We both entered the house afraid, we locked the front door and checked every corner of the house, nothing...I went to the backyard and walked around like if I was conducting an investigation, I found no shoe prints to track his path at all, but I did notice the spot where he had disturbed the dirt with his foot. Once I was done "investigating" we made sure every entrance was properly locked.

Caroline ended up saying that I shouldn't worry, that the guy was probably one of those people that would hang out in the backyard since the house had been vacant until very recently with our arrival. Now that he had noticed that there were people living here, he wouldn't come back. She could be right, but I could sense that she was a little scared too. However, since she was the older sister, she tried to play it cool and convince herself that nothing wrong was happening.

That night before we video called our dad, Caroline forbid me to tell him anything that had happened, it was for the best. She did however, mention to him that we would feel safer if the house had an alarm system.

"Why? Did anything happen?" Wallace asked with a concerned expression.

"No, not at all" I said. "Is just that we're not used to being without you. I mean, Caroline lived for a whole year at the university dorms but there were always security guards literally outside her door."

He seemed convinced of my crappy justification and mentioned that he would look into it.

The three of us had invented a routine. We would eat dinner throughout the video call, that way we felt like if we were together, or at least not so far. I know, kinda corny but it made us feel closer.

Next day, Caroline and I ignored what had happened and didn't talk about it on our way to Denver. After school, we stopped by a couple of stores to buy Halloween decorations for the house. Caroline had promised that we would look for fun stuff to do the whole month, so I could enjoy my first Halloween in Colorado. We stuffed the trunk with tons of bags from our findings and got home when it was already dark. Both us were somewhat concerned, but we tried to pretend like we weren't at all.

As we finished decorating the house, Caroline asked: "So, how did that guy look like?"

"What guy?" I asked completely clueless.

I was having so much fun decorating that I had forgotten about the whole "intruder" issue for a few minutes.

"Duh? The one that was in our backyard yesterday," said Caroline.

"Oh..." I said as I remembered the guy's cute physical features. However, I wasn't going to tell her that. So, I simply described the way he looked, without emphasizing anything that could give me away.

"He's probably some stupid, immature guy that still goes to high school," she mentioned.

"Yeah, I thought the same. A college student should be mature enough to not be trespassing someone else's property."

"Definitely."

The house looked spooky as hell, we had managed to buy many decorations, but still like that I felt like we needed more.

"So, what would you wanna be for Halloween?" I asked Caroline.

"Ugh, I don't know yet. Obviously, something really cute. What about you? Are you going to torture my eyes as a vampire once again?"

"Hey, there are tons of different ways to be a vampire." I said.

"That confirms my fucking speculations. If you're going to be a vampire one more time, at least you have to be a sexy one. Trust me, if I was as voluptuous as you. I would always wear the cutest clothes," she replied.

"Voluptuous? That's a nasty word." I rolled my eyes at her.

"Whatever dude, if you knew how to make that cute body of yours serve its purpose, every guy at school would be following you like a lost puppy. You should take my advice more often. Let's try to buy some more decorations on the weekend if you want. And I suppose we can also try to get our costumes too," said Caroline.

"Sounds like a plan," I said smiling, as I locked the front door.

Caroline went to the kitchen to make sure the back door was locked too.

"Are you sure you don't want to move your stuff to the bedroom next to mine? You can still change your mind," she mentioned.

"Nah, I'm good on the basement dude." I replied.

"Creeeeeeepy," she whispered as she walked up the stairs.

"Goodnight." I said smiling at her.

I went to my bedroom; it had turned out really cute. There was a full-size bed, a small desktop that I used to do both my makeup and homework. I had a large tv, a full-length mirror, and that was pretty much it. I liked adorable, but simple stuff, and I loved how things in the bedroom looked. Mostly everything was a combination of white, light pink and turquoise colors. I even thought about painting the walls pink, but it would have been too much, so I left them white. It was the best decision I could make.

I sat at the desktop and finished a short homework that was due that night and I submitted it through my Mac. Then, I kept searching non important stuff, like how to master every Mario Bros level and stupid things like that. After a couple of hours, I felt very sleepy, took a quick shower and went to bed.

I woke up in the middle of the night drowned in sweat, but it was cold, it was very cold inside the bedroom. I needed to go to the restroom, and for some reason I was scared. I didn't even know why, but I was. I thought about how Caroline said that I should switch to the room next to hers and for an instant I regretted saying no.

There was no reason for me to be frightened, I had never been this type of person. Eventually, I gathered enough courage, went to the restroom, and came back to bed as fast as possible. Just in case something was lurking in the darkness. Once I was lying in my bed, I felt very stupid about having been a coward.

I went back to sleep and nothing disturbed me for the rest of the night, not even all the weird sounds that roamed through the house...

A few more days passed, we bought additional Halloween decorations and the house looked pretty cool. We even thought about doing a haunted house in the garage or something like that. However, Caroline and I were still a little worried about the intruder, and we thought how having a haunted house could bring unwanted people to our property. We ended up deciding that we would only give out candy at the front door. After all, we didn't even know if kids would trick-o-treat in this neighborhood since most of the people that lived here were already older.

I was very excited about my favorite month of the year. Yet, most of the days I would find myself remembering about the guy in our backyard, and I would even glimpse through every freaking window at random times. Maybe I could see him around the block, that way once and for all I would tell him to stay the hell away from our house. Maybe it wouldn't be necessary to be rude, or maybe it was...


	3. Lost Girls

Days passed and I loved Colorado and its weather, I know I always talk about the same crap, but this climate was what I had dreamed of my whole life.

Caroline and I finally had the chance to meet our next-door neighbors, the Millers. One evening when we came back from school, they were doing some work in their garden and I walked over to their yard to thank them for the goodie basket. I also mentioned that we had been looking forward to formally meet them.

I did most of the talking and Caroline watched, smiled, and nodded from a safe distance. She was definitely more social than I was, but for some reason she had a harder time talking to older people. She probably didn't like most of them.

The Millers said that they were happy to have us living next to them, they briefly mentioned that our house had been abandoned for a long time and that they always hoped that a good family would come and live here. They admitted that they had started to think that the house might stay vacant forever.

"For how long had the house been abandoned?" I asked curiously.

"It's been over seven years since the last person lived here, but before that, the house had also been vacant for many years." Mrs. Miller mentioned.

"I wonder why? It is a pretty cool house," I said smiling.

They simply looked at each other and smiled back at us.

As dad had mentioned, the neighbors were very friendly, and they told us to let them know if we needed anything. Caroline and I thanked them and went home.

"You know what?" said Caroline as we entered the house. "I was thinking that maybe I should try to find a job, at least a part time one."

"I don't think is necessary, you know dad doesn't want us to get distracted from school. He's willing to keep paying for all of our necessities until we graduate."

"Yes, dude but he doesn't give us all the money in the world."

"He does as much as he can, and I think that he gives us a very decent amount of money." I said.

"Ugh, yeah but like it would be nice to get some extra money."

"What for?" I asked.

"Like... for booze."

"Booze?"

"Yeah, how the hell do I justify the amount that I spend monthly on drinks? You know dad is nosy about how we use our money, especially now that you're here too."

"Well, alcohol is not a necessity." I said.

"Ha! is not a necessity, but you definitely enjoyed that bottle of wine that we drank on your birthday," said Caroline.

I rolled my eyes and the talk ended there. We usually didn't fight, and it was precisely because we knew when to stop a conversation, before it became an argument.

Maybe Caroline was right, maybe it was good that she got a job, maybe it was even better if the both of us had a job. I could only wonder how stressed our father was, trying to pay for everything, even if he acted like he had every single thing under control.

One evening, Caroline and I went in a hunt for more Halloween decorations. We were headed to Southwest Plaza Mall, and we were still on our block when I saw the boy that had been in our backyard at the beginning of the month, it took me a couple of seconds to process the whole thing as we passed him in the car.

"That's him!" I snapped.

"Who?" asked Caroline.

"The guy that trespassed into our backyard is there," I said as I pointed at him with my thumb.

I turned my head so I could see him and the boy who was a rare combination of cute and repulsive, looked at me with a smirk. He was wearing a trench coat this time, "he must be like a punk, rocker, emo, or something like that." I thought.

He was just standing there in the sidewalk observing us. That whole second once again felt like an eternity, until I got out of the trance when Caroline stepped on the break like a crazy old lady. She got out of the car impressively fast, and I barely had time to ask where was she going.

"I'm gonna tell that dumbass that he should not come into private properties." I could hear as she practically sealed the driver's door.

I got out of the car too, and Caroline asked: "Where is he?"

"I don't know dude; he was just here." I said shrugging and turning my head everywhere.

"Fuck, he must live in one of these houses, and probably went inside as soon as he saw you." she said.

We got into the car as Caroline continued talking: "Trust me, one of these days we will catch him and he's going to wish that he never went into our backyard."

"Well, it's been over a week since we saw him at the house, I don't think he'll do it again." I said, feeling like I was somewhat justifying that stupid boy.

Caroline drove through Pierce St and we passed a high school, Columbine. It looked about the same size as our high school in Huntington Beach, which by the way was named "Coast High School," yeah, a very beachy name.

"Is this the only high school in Littleton?" I asked Caroline, as I kept observing the building.

"Nah dude, I believe there's two more across Canam Highway, but this is the oldest one for sure. I mean, I suppose," she giggled.

We arrived to the mall, bought some final decorations for the house and we found the perfect costumes at Hot Topic.

"I hate you." said Caroline. "You have always been the pretty sister, with the perfect body."

"Why do you keep saying that? You look better than I do," I replied.

Caroline was very thin, I wasn't fat, but she was right when she used the word "voluptuous" to describe my body the other day. I mean, it was nice to have a fat ass and stuff, but at the same time I hated it because I felt like it was all that men would notice when they talked to me. Anyways, not that I had been in too many relationships, but that's what I had learned along the way so far.

So... yeah, I was going to be a vampire once again, against Caroline's approval. I got a black and blue dress; it was so long that I could easily trip with it. However, Caroline made sure that at least my costume was very tight, and I had to admit; I liked how I looked.

"I don't see the point in buying this sultry costume if we're not doing anything more than giving out candy," I said as I looked at myself in the dressing room mirror.

"Maybe we can go to a party," said Caroline with a grin.

"What do you mean? Halloween lands on a Thursday and we have class next morning."

"Dude do you not know the meaning of the word ditch, skip, cut class? Do any of them ring a bell in that cute clueless head?"

"I obviously wouldn't ditch school just to go to a Halloween party," I replied.

"Isn't it your favorite holiday? I'm just trying to make you happy here," she said.

"I'm already happy," I replied.

"Damn it, ok, we can go to a party the weekend right before Halloween. I'm sure there will be plenty to choose from. So, if any guy talks to you at school anytime soon... make sure you act nice, because they might invite you to a great party," she said.

I rolled my eyes as we walked to the register to pay our stuff.

Once we were in the car, Caroline mentioned as she wandered through her phone: "There's a cheap pizza place like five minutes away from here, is called Black Jack. Is it ok if we get something from there?"

"Yeah, I haven't had any pizza since we were still in Cali," I said remembering how these two months had gone by way too fast.

"I'm gonna order it to go," she mentioned as we arrived.

"Cool."

I waited in the car while she went to grab the pizza, the place seemed small and Caroline came back really quick.

"That was fast," I said.

"There weren't any people waiting, and the guy at the cashier was nice," said Caroline with a flirty smile.

Sometimes I wished that I could be a little bit more like my sister. Don't get me wrong, she isn't a whore, she just likes to flirt, and I would like to be the same, but I don't even know how to act around hot boys. That's probably why they ignore me most of the time.

We got home in no more than ten minutes, the pizza was still hot and good as hell, or maybe I was too hungry. I ate four slices and Caroline only ate two.

"Damn, all that pizza must go to your boobs," she said teasing. "Me in the other hand, I will look seven months pregnant if I eat one more slice."

Once we finished eating, we said each other goodnight and I went to my room. I tried on the costume once again, and I liked how I looked. I observed my reflection in the mirror, my long, hot pink hair, stood out tremendously in contrast with the colors of the dress. I had been doing my hair this color for a long time. Eventually, I would like to go back to the platinum blonde that I had in high school days, but it would probably take a while to get rid of the bright magenta color.

I went to sleep after taking a shower, and I had a crazy dream during the night, it seemed so real that for a moment I thought it was so. The clock alarm rang, and when I opened my eyes the intruder was sitting in the chair right by my desktop.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I asked him in my dream.

He was smiling at me and wouldn't say a word. I got out of the bed to confront him, and when I tried to slap him for being in my bedroom... he grabbed my hand and he was cold, so cold that it gave me goosebumps. When I woke up my hand was freezing.

"Ugh, it must be because is so freaking cold in here," I thought as I rubbed my hand.

It was the middle of the night, I needed to go the restroom just like the other day and once again I felt scared.

I was upset because such a little incident was literally giving me nightmares. I mean, yes the guy had trespassed our property by being in our backyard, but truly he hadn't done anything bad. He didn't break into the house or anything else, but I guess that's what made me feel insecure. The fact that he could have done something bad if he really wanted.

"Fuck maybe I shouldn't have eaten all that pizza so late, that's probably why I had that stupid dream." I thought as I went back to bed, after using the restroom.

Next day, I felt prompted to tell Caroline about the nightmare, but I also knew that she would give me a hard time for it. I could even imagine what she would say: "Dreaming about the intruder, creepy."

I decided that I wasn't going to tell her, but maybe I should have. That stupid dream kept repeating in my mind through the whole day, and I had a hard time focusing on my classes. Once we were done for the day, Caroline and I met close to her car, as usual.

"Damn you look like shit, did you have trouble in any of your classes?"

"Nah, just feel a little too tired today, I don't know why." I replied.

We were silent on the way home, and once we arrived, I prepared some fettuccine Alfredo. I couldn't get the fucking dream out of my system; the good thing is that it was Friday and we didn't have to worry about school the next day. I would complete my homework, eventually during the weekend, probably at the last minute like I usually did.

"Do you wanna Netflix and chill in my bedroom?" asked Caroline.

"If it wasn't because you're my sister, I would think that it is a pretty lame pick up line." I said smiling. "Let me just grab my pillow."

Caroline put on some true crime documentary, just to please me because I knew that she would get bored to death with those shows.

I started feeling sleepy maybe twenty minutes into it, and I could barely hear Caroline's voice complaining about how did I like that kind of stupid stuff. My eyes felt very heavy and I kept blinking until I ended up falling asleep. Nothing disturbed me that night, and when I opened my eyes, I even felt lost for a second.

"Where the hell am I?" I thought.

I turned to the side and saw Caroline sleeping, then I remembered how I had literally ditched our "Netflix and chill" Friday night, but I knew she would eventually forgive me for it...


	4. Unpleasantville

Dad had managed to pay for an alarm system, he told us that they were going to install it that same weekend.

"Maybe it wasn't necessary." I told Caroline as she drove back home. "We shouldn't make him spend more money than he already does."

"Dude, we need that alarm system! I mean, kinda often you have the day off from school and you're home on your own. If I get a job you will be alone even for longer periods of time and I've even had a hard time falling asleep lately because I feel insecure. Having the alarm will surely bring my peace back," she said.

"Well, maybe we overreacted with the whole intruder thing. Yeah, the guy trespassed but he didn't do anything bad, he was just standing in our backyard. Plus, he hasn't come back." I said, feeling once again like if I was somewhat justifying this "mystery boy."

"Whatever dude, if you're so worried about dad paying for that service, he can cancel it once he lives here with us. I'm sure we will feel safer with him by our side, but for now the alarm is completely necessary," she said.

Halloween was a couple of days away and I couldn't believe how this month had gone by so fast. Don't get me wrong, I do love Christmas too. In fact, the last four months of the year were my favorite, but there was just something about Halloween that I enjoyed the most. It's the only day of the year where you can look however the hell you want, and no one will criticize you for it...

We had bought the last bunch of candies for the trick-or-treaters, hopefully there were going to be many kids. If not, then I don't know what the hell we would do with so much candy. The neighborhood was silent as usual, we would hardly see anyone outside. I'm sure most of the people spent their days watching tv, reading, and stuff like that.

Once Caroline parked the car, she grabbed a few bags and went inside the house. I was trying to gather the rest of them so I wouldn't have to go back and forward, when an unknown voice startled me. A desperate fear ran through my blood...

"Do you need help with that?"

I already knew who it was. I turned around quickly and yes, the intruder had the nerve to come and ask if I needed help.

All this time I had been prepared to tell him all kinds of bad words for trespassing into our backyard. I had even practiced my speech a few times, but in that moment, I couldn't say anything of what I had planned.

"No, I'm fine," was all I could reply.

"Are you sure? It seems like you still have a bunch of things to carry."

Then, I exploded: "You come and ask if I need help pretending like the other day you weren't trespassing a private property?"

"What do you mean?" he asked scoffing.

"Don't play dumb, I saw you in my backyard the other day. Did you know that you can get in legal trouble because of that? What will your parents say when they find out that you like to invade other people's houses?"

"Chill out, I wasn't trespassing," he said rolling his eyes.

"What? You weren't trespassing? Are you out of your fucking mind?"

He examined me from head to toe with a daunting expression, I was about to ask him what the hell was he looking at, but he said something else...

"Look at her, she can use bad words. You really have no idea, huh?"

"No idea about what?" I asked bothered.

"About who I am," he replied.

"Well, how am I supposed to know if the only two times that I had seen you prior to this one you would disappear like a freaking coward."

"True, but you have even dreamed about me."

I scoffed while trying to find something offensive to tell him, but I was too slow...

He smiled and offered his hand: "My intention wasn't to bother you, even if it looked like it. What's your name?"

I was very upset, but for some reason I couldn't ignore his nice gesture. I shook his hand and said: "Amara Harrison." By the way, his hand was freezing just like in my dream.

"Harrison? That might explain it all," he said baffled.

"Explain what?"

He smiled again and said: "My name is Eric, nice to meet you."

Then, he finally let my hand go. He gave me a final smirk, turned around and walked to the Miller's house. He opened the small gate door that lead to their backyard and didn't look back anymore. I stood there with my mouth wide open, if this guy had gone into the Miller's home, it meant that he was their grandson.

I couldn't believe how I had lost all this time wondering who this "mystery boy" was or where he came from, just to find out that he lived right next to me.

Caroline walked out of the house: "What the hell are you still doing out here?"

"I just discovered that the fucking intruder lives with the Millers. He must be their grandson."

Caroline shook her head: "They didn't mention that they had a grandson living with them, did they? How did you find out?"

"Well, the guy came out of nowhere and asked if I needed help with the bags, like if he hadn't done anything wrong. Then, he told me his name and left when I declined his help. He got into their backyard through the side entrance. I think I will go talk to the Millers and tell them about their grandson's extracurricular activities." I said.

"Ugh, at least let's take the rest of the bags inside," she said.

We did so and once inside, we opened every candy bag and poured them into the gigantic cauldron that we had bought. It took barely a couple of minutes.

"Ok here I go, wish me luck."

"Amara wait," Caroline said as she followed me all the way to the sidewalk. I was already ringing the neighbor's doorbell.

Mrs. Miller opened the door with a warming smile on her face.

"Hi Amara, how are you? Would you like to come in?"

"Actually, I think is better if you come outside, I need to talk to you."

"About what darling?" she asked as she stepped out, her husband joined her and said hi too.

"Hello Mr. Miller, I'm glad you're here too. I wanted to let you know that the other day your grandson was in our backyard. I tried to talk to him twice about the whole thing, but he didn't give me a chance, so I thought it was best if I came and told you instead."

Their faces were full of uncertainty as I continued talking: "He didn't do anything bad, but he was in our backyard and when I tried to talk to him, he left right away. I know it might be easy for him or anyone else to hang out in the property since no one lived there, but now that we are here, I believe that it would be better if he didn't trespass anymore."

"I'm sorry Amara," said Mr. Miller. "But we are very confused, we don't have any grandkids living with us." His wife nodded.

"What? He even opened the gate door and entered your backyard."

They were silent for a couple of seconds and didn't know what to say.

"Wow then the guy must have been trespassing into your property too. We have to be careful maybe he is trying to break into one of the houses, and he's looking for the right opportunity." I said perplexed, as I looked over to Caroline who was confused too.

Mr. Miller headed to his backyard and didn't take long for him to come back. He mentioned that he couldn't find anyone.

Mrs. Miller said: "Maybe he is just a rascal, how old did he look? For what I know the only young people in the neighborhood are the both of you."

"Do you remember how he looked like?" asked Mr. Miller at the same time.

"Yeah, uhm well... he seems about my age. The day that I saw him in our backyard he was wearing some black cargo pants, military boots, a white t-shirt and a black cap. He was taller than me, with green eyes I think, his hair was short, and dark brown."

They looked at each other and I literally saw how Mr. Miller gulped as I continued talking: Then, the other day we saw him when we were leaving the neighborhood, and he was wearing a black trench coat, just like today."

Caroline started walking towards us and mentioned: "I didn't see him any of those times, but today was the third time that Amara saw him, so we suppose that he must live around here."

"Did he tell you anything?" asked Mr. Miller hesitantly.

"Well, the other two times I wasn't able to talk to him but today he offered to help with the bags as we arrived from the store. I even felt like he tried to play nice, or dumb, because he mentioned that technically he wasn't trespassing," I said.

"Did he say his name?" asked Mr. Miller.

"Oh yeah, that's right, he did. He said his name was Eric."

As soon as those words left my mouth Mrs. Miller almost fainted, and her husband helped her sit on one of the garden chairs.

"Is she ok?" I asked panicked, as I got close to them.

"Do you need anything Sir?" asked Caroline freaking out.

Mr. Miller stayed calm the whole time: "No girls, don't worry it must her blood pressure. She hasn't been taking the medication as she is supposed to, and she's been feeling funky lately."

His wife barely nodded, and he helped her walk into their house. Before closing the door, he mentioned: "We will try to find out more about him soon ok? Just be very careful, stay safe."

"Yes, you too Sir." I was able to say as he closed the door.

Caroline and I walked back to our house and she mentioned: "Ok, that was totally weird."

"Don't be mean dude. Poor lady has blood pressure problems and needs medication. Didn't you hear?"

"Yes I did, I just thought it was strange how it happened all of a sudden."

"Maybe we should tell dad this time." I said as we entered the house.

"Tell him what?" Caroline asked.

"Duh? That there is a guy trying to break into the houses in the neighborhood. We're all at risk."

"Let's just wait," said Caroline.

"Wait for what? Until he actually breaks in to one of the houses? Then our dad will scold us for not telling him earlier. Plus is not only us that are at risk, the neighbors are too, look at the Millers, they are elder. What if this guy does something to them?"

"He must be just some stupid teenager that likes to jump over fences. What else did he tell you?" she asked.

"Nothing dude, he was even somewhat nice, kinda stupid but nice. However, not because he was nice means that he can go trespassing everyone's properties," I said.

"Yeah, you're right I just don't want to worry our father. Let's just wait till Halloween is over, ok? Is your favorite day and I want you to have fun. Tomorrow we can visit the Millers with the excuse of asking if kids actually trick or treat in this neighbor, and we can try to talk about all this again. We might even be able to come up with some ideas together." Caroline mentioned.

"I guess you're right," I replied

"And don't forget, dad is arriving soon. We will be safe," she added.

She was right, our father hadn't been able to come during September or October as we all had wanted, but he was going to arrive on November the 1st. I guess we could wait for Halloween to be over and once dad got here, we could tell him about the intruder. Who knows? He might even want to come live here sooner because of that. I hated accepting it, but what Caroline had proposed was the best option. Halloween was around the corner and I wasn't going to waste my favorite day of the year simply because of a stupid boy that liked to hang out in other people's backyards...


	5. Halloween

The day before Halloween, Caroline and I went looking for the Millers, we were hoping that we could talk more about the intruder with them. They weren't home...

As we walked back to the house, we saw our other-side neighbor parking on her driveway.

"Let's go meet her Care," I said.

"Ugh what for?"

"Don't be mean, you should be as social with the neighbors as you are with the hot boys that you talk to in school," I said teasing.

She rolled her eyes, and we arrived to the neighbor's sidewalk.

The woman seemed not older than fifty, she was thin and cute, her hair wasn't too long, and she had hazel eyes.

"Hi! Are you our neighbor?" I asked.

"I guess so," said the woman with a friendly tone.

"My name is Amara, and this is my sister, Caroline."

"Nice to meet you both, the name's Judy. Were you looking for the Millers?" she asked.

"Yeah... Actually, we just wanted to ask them if kids trick-or-treat on this neighborhood," I replied.

"Mostly every year the Millers spend Halloween with some of their family in Downtown Denver, they live close to Berkeley Lake. Oh, and we do get a decent number of trick-or treaters every year."

"That's very nice to know, we bought massive amounts of candy," I said giggling.

"You barely moved here a few months ago, right?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah, with our dad... Well, actually he is in California right now, but yeah." I replied nervously, I wasn't used to say that Care and I lived on our own.

"And you?" I asked hesitantly. "Do you live with your family too?"

She simply smiled and said: "No, I live by myself. I bought this house about ten years ago with the money that I got after my divorce."

"Oh nice. If you live on your own, then there's something that I think you need to know." I said as I looked over to Caroline, who was standing in the sidewalk as usual. She rolled her eyes at my words once again.

"What is it?" asked Judy.

"Uhm, well..." I gave her a summary about everything that happened with the "mystery boy."

"Wow, that's really weird. I don't know of any teenagers that live on this block, aside from you girls, obviously." she said with a faint smile "I wonder if he lives on another neighborhood."

"Yeah, we've been wondering the same." I mentioned. "Just wanted to let you know so you can be careful, since we have no idea what his intentions are."

"Thank you, be careful too. I will also be giving out candy tomorrow, in case you want to trick-or-treat." she said giggling.

We thanked her and went back home.

"Anything to say?" I asked Caroline.

"About what?"

"Well, you always have something to say about everyone," I mentioned.

"Whatever."

We watched tv in the living room as we completed our homework, and it was past twelve when we finally decided to go to bed.

"Hey Amara... Do you wanna sleep with me? Better said, in my bedroom? You know just in case there are some ghosts and goblins around, since is already Halloween," said Caroline.

"I thought I was the one obsessed with all the paranormal stuff." I replied, making fun of her.

We slept together like two good sisters, as if that could keep us safe from anything...

The day finally got here; it was Halloween. I was so happy about it, that I even wished that I didn't have to go to school so that I could stay home watching scary movies all day. Nothing too scary though. Something like Hocus Pocus scary, it was my favorite movie, and brought back nostalgia from the 90's. I mean, I wasn't even born in the 90's, I was born in 2000... but I always wished that I could have been a 90's kid. For the same reason, Binx and Max from the movie were my favorite. I dreamed of having a boyfriend that could be as cute and nice as them.

Anyways, I had to stop daydreaming and get ready for school. I would watch Hocus Pocus with Caroline once we were back home and done giving out candy.

The day at school was actually very fun. I never expected to see so many students wearing costumes, and I even took pictures with some people. I regretted not wearing my sultry vampire dress on campus. Once we were done with our classes, we headed home, ate some instant noodles and got ready to give out candy.

"Bitch, you look freaking hot and scary," mentioned Caroline as I came upstairs from the basement.

Caroline was tinkerbell, and her naturally blonde hair looked almost perfect with her short, lime green dress.

"Thank you, you look great too." I said blushing and having some trouble to articulate words due to my fake fangs. "Do you wanna watch Hocus Pocus once we're done giving out candy?"

"Maybe... I don't know. Well, actually I'm gonna be very honest. I invited some guy over, but I don't know at what time he's coming, and he might bring some handsome friends," she said grinning.

"What are you talking about?" I asked bothered. "Dad doesn't want any people in the house, at least not that kind of people."

"What do you mean by that kind of people?" she said rolling her eyes as usual.

"Don't play dumb, people that might have bad intentions towards you, towards us."

"Amara, I lived alone for one year, one whole year before you came to Colorado, and nothing bad ever happened. I just wanna have fun with them and you should do the same."

"I think your definition of 'fun" is completely different from mine." I said, as I crossed my arms.

"Look, I promise they won't stay late, and I'll just have a few drinks with them, ok?"

I was still bugged, and I decided to ignore her. I carried the massive cauldron to the porch and sat down while looking around, hoping to spot some trick-or-treaters. It was too early...

I left the door open, and I could see Caroline running back and forward preparing some snacks and trying to make everything look nice before her "friends" arrived.

"So much for trying to make me have fun on this day. You freaking ditch me to spend time with some losers." I thought.

However, I couldn't be selfish, and I couldn't stay upset at her forever. I just hoped that she truly kept her word about not having these visitors over until very late.

I saw Judy coming towards our house, and after saying hi, she gave me two cute treat bags. "Happy Halloween to you and your sister," she mentioned.

"Aww, thank you so much Judy." I said, as I grabbed the bags. "You're a beautiful witch."

"Thank you. Very basic I know, and its last year's costume, but maybe the trick-or-treaters won't notice. You on the other hand, look stunning."

"I'm sure they won't mind at all." I said smiling and thanked her once again.

"Let me know if you have any updates about the intruder," she mentioned. "I got somewhat concerned. So, feel free to come visit any time you like. I don't work, and for the same reason I'm home all the time."

"Oh, ok... thank you so much for the invite. I will go over if I have any news." I said smiling.

She walked back to her house and turned around to wink at me when she saw the first trick-or-treaters running around the block.

I got very excited as I leaned over to give out the candy, but also, I felt remorse wearing this costume. After all, freaking Caroline wasn't even going to be by my side to help me feel less uncomfortable.

A car parked on the street; it was three boys. "Great, Caroline's friends are here and they're not even cute," I thought annoyed.

"Someone's looking for you, Care!" I yelled.

Caroline was already behind me, waiting for them to come in. She tried introducing them, but I literally ignored her as I gave candy to a cute, little girl in a princess costume. A few minutes later, I heard one of the boys asking Caroline if I was going to join them for some drinks, but I couldn't hear Caroline's response. I didn't even want to look inside the house.

The sun was finally setting, and I was still thrilled because lots of kids had already come to get candy. I enjoyed seeing their costumes, and their little faces full of happiness as I put a bunch of candy in their bags. Dad had always made this day memorable for us when we were little, so I cherished it tremendously. I was looking at my phone, trying to find some Halloween jams, so I didn't have to hear Caroline's stupid friends talking inside...

In that same instant, someone asked: "Can I get some candy too?"

It was Eric, the fucking intruder. "You again?" I asked. "What the hell are you doing here?"

That usual mischievous smile plastered across his face made feel very uneasy. I yelled: "Caroline!"

"She can't hear you," said Eric, as he sat down next to me while looking at my cleavage in a very obvious way. He took out a cigarette from a package that looked very aged, and he started smoking as if he was visiting an old friend.

"You need to leave and never come back If you don't wanna get in serious trouble." I said.

"Get in serious trouble with who? With your father?" He mentioned laughing.

"Actually yes, I will have him talk to your parents about everything that you've been doing."

"One, your dad doesn't live here with you. Two, you don't even know where I come from, much less who my parents are."

"Have you been stalking us?" I asked perplexed.

He laughed once again and said: "Trust me, I have no intention of being here at all, but I need help, and I specifically need yours."

"Help with what? And why me?"

"Would you really help me if I told you?" he asked with what seemed like a spark of hope in his eyes.

"Of course not," I said scoffing.

"Then I will have to make your life a living nightmare," he said smiling.

He stood up and grabbed a small chocolate bar from the cauldron. Then, he opened it and threw the wrap and his cigarette butt on the sidewalk, as he began walking away from me. He glanced at me one last time and gave me a devilish smile before disappearing around the block.

"How is it going?" asked Caroline a couple of seconds later.

I jumped completely startled by her words and told her what had just happened. "Look, he didn't even care to take his trash with him." I said as I pointed the chocolate wrap and cigarette butt.

Caroline seemed very preoccupied, but she was definitely more worried about making her friends have a good time.

She said: "Just yell very loud if he comes back, ok? My friends can give him a good scare once and for all."

"Yeah like you listened a few minutes ago, when I was screaming your name the first time." I muttered.

I was paranoid the rest of the evening, but I didn't want to stop giving out candy until there weren't any more kids. As I had mentioned before, I wasn't going to let this Eric boy ruin my favorite day, so I bravely stayed in the porch until no one else came to get candy... and we actually had very few left.

I went to the basement and completed my yearly tradition by watching Hocus Pocus, still on my costume and eating a small bunch of the leftover candy. That night I couldn't sleep, I kept wondering why Eric needed my help, and also about how he mentioned that he would make my life a living nightmare if I didn't help him. Not only that, but it was past two a.m. and Caroline's friends hadn't left yet...


	6. Ghost World

A loud bang woke me up, it came from the front door. The faint rays of sun coming through my bedroom window made me realize that it was already late. I checked my phone, and it was 11:00 a.m. Caroline and I were supposed to wake up at six for school. What the hell had happened?

Rapidly, I got out of bed and ran to the front door, Caroline was running down the stairs in that same instant. She had obviously just wakened up as well. I peeked through the window... it was our father.

I opened the door slowly as I saw Caroline's terrified expression.

"Girls what are you still doing home?" Wallace asked.

He didn't know our schedule perfectly, but he had already told us that he was arriving today during the morning, and we had told him that we would be in class. He probably found out that we were still home as soon as he saw Caroline's car parked on the driveway, since she hadn't even cared to get it inside the garage last night.

I glanced at Caroline, she acted fast: "They canceled our classes for the day, dad."

"For both of you?" asked our father.

"Yeah... there was something going on, teacher development or training, and they canceled everything." said Caroline.

She was bad, if I couldn't lie, she was even worse than me at it. I was assured that our father hadn't believed a single word. He walked further into the living room, then to the dining room, and to the kitchen. I instantly noticed that stupid Caroline hadn't even cleaned up her mess last night. There were beer bottles, shot glasses, candies, and snacks everywhere.

Fuming, our father asked: "What have you girls been doing?"

For the first time in her life, Caroline didn't include me in the whole situation so she could try to get away with it. "Sorry daddy, Amara had nothing to do. I invited some friends over last night and she even mentioned that I shouldn't have people visiting when you're not here. She spent the whole evening in candy duty while I stayed with my friends. As soon as she was done giving out the candy, she went to bed."

Wallace knew that Caroline was right. I had practically been a good girl my whole life and whenever I got in trouble it was precisely Caroline's fault.

Our father scolded Caroline for an eternity, and then he asked why I didn't go to school either if I supposedly didn't do anything bad.

As usual, I didn't lie: "I could hear Caroline's friends talking and for the same reason, I couldn't sleep, but I eventually did... I guess, because when I opened my eyes you were banging on the door. I was so tired that I probably didn't even hear my alarm clock go off earlier."

He actually made Caroline go to school although she was completely hungover, but Friday was a short day for me and my last class ended at noon, so I didn't have to go anymore. I stayed in the basement, and later on while Caroline was still gone, dad asked me if I wanted to go get something to eat.

"Yeah sure, and now that you mention it, I actually wanted to ask you for a favor. Can we stop by a video game store? Is only like five minutes away from here. I had ordered a game and Caroline was supposed to take me pick it up today. Is already paid for and stuff." I said, purposely evading any eye contact with him.

"Let's go." he said with a nice expression. "At least I know what one of my daughters spends her money on."

We got to the store and Wallace waited for me outside. I entered and a cute girl with long, dark, wavy hair, and glasses asked me right away if I needed help.

I told her that I was there to pick up a game and she immediately searched my order in the computer. With her eyes glued to the computer screen, she complimented my hair and mentioned: "You're not from here, right?"

"How do you know?" I asked curiously.

"Because you're too pretty." she said smiling. "Girls in Littleton aren't that pretty."

"But you're pretty." I said smiling too.

"Yeah, that's because I'm not from here either." she said laughing. "I've been living here for many years already though."

We crossed a few more words and she brought my game from the back. I asked her name before leaving, it was Lisa.

"Thank you for your help Lisa, I'll see you around." I said as I walked out of the store.

Afterwards, dad and I stopped along the way to get some Taco Bell and we went home to eat.

"I went to say hi to the Millers while you were in your bedroom earlier." Wallace said. "They're not home."

"They haven't been there for a couple of days already, our other neighbor said that they spend Halloween with their family in downtown Denver."

Also, I remembered about the intruder for the first time of the day, and I felt obliged to tell dad about it.

"Listen dad, something has been going on. We hadn't told you because we didn't want you to worry."

"What is it?" he asked, already worried.

I told him about every encounter that I've had with the trespasser, including last night. Our father was very upset, not at me but at the whole situation.

We went looking for the Millers one more time because he wanted to talk to them about all of it. They hadn't come back yet, so we went home. The day ended with nothing important to point out, except that our father didn't talk to Caroline at all, and that she offered me an apology.

"An apology, why?" I asked.

"Because I should have listened to you when you said that I shouldn't have anyone at the house. It was too risky, and I thought I could get away with it, but look what happened. It wasn't even worth it, and now dad is super upset." she said.

Sadly, we had to wake up early Saturday because we needed to complete some service hours for the class that we had together. Fortunately, we didn't have to go all the way to Denver, since we were allowed to complete it at the nearest public library.

The three hours went by fast; we went back home, and we sat down in the living room discussing what we should eat and who was going to cook, or if we were going to buy. Dad had finally said a few words to Caroline, and he seemed to be in a good mood. Maybe he had forgiven Caroline, or maybe he just didn't want to be upset all the time. He also showed us how to activate and deactivate the alarm that had been installed while my sister and I were gone.

The doorbell rang, it was the Millers. Our father invited them inside, and they hesitated for a few seconds but eventually came in. They were completely quiet, and we all sat down in the dining room, since we thought that they were visiting now that dad was here.

Mr. Miller said that they needed to talk to the three of us, especially dad.

"Amara, have you talked to your father about the intruder?" he asked.

"Yes Mr. Miller, dad arrived yesterday, and I told him about it."

Also, I told Mr. Miller about my last encounter with Eric on Halloween night.

They seemed terrified, and Mrs. Miller who had literally been spectating up to this point, asked Caroline: "Did you see him this time?"

"No, I still haven't seen him at all." replied Caroline.

Then Mr. Miller asked Wallace: "Did you end up telling your girls about this house?"

Dad looked over at Caroline and I with a concerned expression, and asked: "What does the intruder have to do with the past of this house?"

"What is going on dad?" I asked.

Evidently, our father had been hiding something from us... He briefly explained the reason for which apparently not a lot of people had lived in this house over many, many years.

"It is because, it used to belong to a mass murderer and his parents." he said.

"Mass murderer? Those are some major words." I thought, but I wasn't able to say anything. Caroline and I stared at each other with our mouths wide open, and Caroline was ready to unleash hell on earth...

"What the fuck, dad? Why would you buy this house if you knew that? Are you crazy? Why did you do this to us?"

"Calm down Caroline, we don't even really know the story behind all this, let our father tell us exactly what happened." I mentioned.

The Millers also stared at each other, obviously feeling bad for being the harbingers of evil.

Mr. Miller said: "The important thing here is that we think that this whole time Amara has been seeing a ghost."

"A ghost?" asked Caroline as she erupted in a hysterical laugh.

"What? There's no such thing as ghosts." I replied, wondering if there was a hidden camera somewhere, and this whole scene was part of a very bad joke.

Our father was confused, everyone was confused. Mr. Miller addressed Wallace: "The description of the intruder that Amara has given us fits completely with that of the teenager that used to live in this house, including his name. So, if she didn't know anything about him until now as she claims, how do you explain that she had been seeing him? Not only that, but as you just heard she has been the only one interacting with him."

To risk another line encroaching in very crowded foreheads, I asked some stupid questions: "What did this guy do? How is he a mass murderer? Why would he be a ghost? Isn't he in jail?"

"Do you want to tell them?" asked Mr. Miller, still addressing my father.

"You know the information better than I do," he replied almost muttering.

Mr. Miller took a deep breath and told us the story as if he was literally narrating a scary tale. Not only did I learn that Eric and his friend named Dylan had killed a total of thirteen people at Columbine High School twenty years ago, but both of them committed suicide.

Caroline and I listened to the whole story without saying a word. As soon as Mr. Miller made a pause, I pulled out my phone and googled "Eric Harris Columbine." It was him, I had been too close to him to properly remember his physical appearance, but this was impossible. There were no such things as ghosts, and take it from me, the girl obsessed with all the paranormal stuff.

I was petrified, and Caroline glanced over at my phone screen.

"Did you already know all this?" asked our father somewhat upset.

"Are you implying that I am lying? That I made up this whole thing? I know who I saw and yes it was him." I said, as I showed dad my phone.

"Why would my daughter be seeing a ghost?" asked our father doubtful and completely ignoring me.

Mr. Miller said: "Wallace, you obviously know your daughter better than I do, but Amara isn't a liar. I've been around a long time; I know how people are just by observing them. She was completely clueless about all this, until now. Not only that, but I have reasons to believe her." Mrs. Miller nodded at her husband's words.

"What are those reasons?" asked my father.

"We have witnessed first-hand weird things that have happened in this house. Ever since Eric's family moved out of here, which was a few months after everything happened, there's been eerie things going on around the property. I always thought it was the ramblings of our old minds, I thought it was our imagination."

Dad laughed nervously: "I don't know what to say, this is too confusing. If any of it is true, I believe is even worse to know that the intruder is a ghost and not a real person. I mean, you get rid of an intruder by calling the police, but how do you get rid of a ghost?"

"We have been wondering the same thing for many years." said Mr. Miller. "But now, seems like we just found out why. Amara just said that Eric mentioned that he needs her help."

After those words, all five of us were completely quiet. The Millers decided to leave, and we sat on the living room with tons of crazy questions lingering around us. I ended up going to the basement.

As I walked, Caroline followed me to the stairs, she said: "Amara..."

Before she could say another word, I replied: "Listen Caroline, I don't know what the fuck is happening, but I don't wanna talk about it, ok?"

I closed the door to my bedroom, and I didn't know what to do. What had just happened was a total madness and it simply couldn't be real. I turned on my laptop, and Face Timed my long-distance friend. She had been in high school with me, but she was originally from Chile. She had gone back to her country as soon as we graduated, and we had stayed in touch all these months.

My friend, Olga was astonished by everything that I told her. I had mentioned to her about the intruder a few days ago, but that was it. She had always been a believer of all those ghostly things. Me in the other hand, I loved paranormal stuff, but nothing had ever happened that made me believe in it, now I was doubting my beliefs...


	7. The Walking Dead

Sunday afternoon, Caroline went down to the basement looking for me. She never did before, I guess she was truly worried, considering that I hadn't gotten out of my room since last night.

"Do you need help with anything?" she asked.

"Do you really want to help me? Then take my mind off from this stupid situation." I replied.

"How about we take down the Halloween decorations?"

"Well, I honestly thought that you would have something better in mind, but I guess that'll work." I said.

I hadn't seen Eric... or his ghost, since Thursday, on Halloween night. I know it's totally crazy, but I wanted to see him. I needed to see him and know once and for all if the Millers were right. Maybe everything that they had said was a lie, maybe they didn't mean to lie, but simply everything had gone the wrong way. I really hoped that they were mistaken.

Dad had been elusive about the whole ghost/intruder thing, according to Caroline, because I hadn't even seen him for half a day. My sister and I proceeded to take down the decorations, and I kept thinking how it was much harder and boring getting rid of them than putting them on.

She mentioned: "I know you're not lying... If that helps at all."

"Care, I don't wanna sound mean, but it doesn't make a difference. I know what I saw, so unless all this is a massive confusion, my mind can't understand what is going on. And now that I want to see him, I haven't seen him." I said bothered.

"See who?" she asked.

"The ghost, obviously." I replied.

"What? Are you crazy? What for would you want to see him? He is a ghost and may I add, a murderer!"

"Just... Well, he has some serious explaining to do, like why the hell is he haunting me."

"I think that word is a little too dramatic, don't you think?" Caroline asked.

"Dude, he said that he would make my life a living nightmare if I didn't help him. Does that not sound like haunting to you?"

She shrugged...

I continued: "You know what? I think is better if we don't talk about it anymore, as a matter of fact I hope you're right. I don't want to see him; I really hope that I never get to see him again. Spooky season is over and gone, and maybe Eric is gone with it too. Now, Christmas is around the corner and I would be very thankful to not have any 'spirits of Christmas past' or anything like that lingering around this stupid house. I never thought I would say this, but for the first time in my life I'm not into all that ghostly stuff."

She nodded and didn't say a word, maybe I had in fact been way too dramatic, but at least she didn't tease me for it as she used to do with every single thing.

We finished taking off the decorations and once again I returned to my bedroom. I Faced Timed my friend Olga one more time and she asked about the ghost too, it was inevitable. I wanted to forget about him, about this whole situation, but it was impossible. Maybe the people around me would talk about this forever, about how I lost my mind and made up a ghost story.

I told Olga how I hadn't seen Eric now that I needed to see him, and she acted quite the opposite from Caroline. She said that I should do a séance...

"A what?" I asked.

She laughed: "Yes dummy, a séance. Summon his spirit."

"Yeah, I don't think so, I rather leave everything like that. Hopefully he'll never come back, and all this will be just a bad memory."

She still cared to give me a full guide on how to conduct that séance crap. A few candles, something that belonged to the "ghost," a triggering phrase, and a few more things. She ended our video call by mentioning: "Don't say that I didn't give you a solution to your current problem."

I kept walking in circles around my room for a long time, and hoping to forget about everything, I eventually started cleaning my closet. I was surprised to see that it extended very deep under the stairs, and after reaching as far as I could, I found a hollow area. I put some pressure on the wall, and a small hole formed right away. I was able to get my hand inside, hoping that a giant rat wouldn't yank my whole arm away. I touched something, and thankfully it wasn't hairy. I grabbed it and took it out, it was a small cylinder, a tube. I had only seen something similar on tv, mainly on fiction movies, it seemed like a fake pipe bomb. "Why would a fake pipe bomb be hidden under the stairs?" I thought.

All these days had been very puzzling, and I figured that getting out of the house could help me forget about everything, at least for a little while. I asked dad if he could lend me his car, he didn't want to, but eventually ended up saying yes since I had recently received my Colorado driver's license.

I went to the video game store and Lisa, the employee from the other day was there. She immediately went up to me and asked courteously if something was wrong with my past order.

"Oh, no, not at all. Just needed to breath some fresh air, so I got out of the house. Then, I realized that I literally don't know any place in this town, so I ended up here." I said with a faint smile.

"Ok but are you sure that you're fine?" she asked nicely. "You seem kinda baffled."

I told her that some things were messing up with my head. I mean, the girl was super nice, but I barely knew her. What would she think if I told her that I had been seeing a ghost?

There was no one else in the store, she said it was a slow day, so we kept talking. I eventually fessed up, somewhat. I didn't tell her everything, but I gave her some information. She seemed like someone I could trust, hopefully. I limited myself to say that I had just discovered that I lived in what used to be Eric Harris' house.

"I assume you know who he is." I said looking at the floor.

"Yeah I do, everyone here knows."

"I figured." I muttered.

"That's a very unfortunate situation. How did you find out?" she asked.

"Well, long story short, I'm from Cali and I came here to attend college with my sister. Dad bought us a house, which seemed somewhat decayed but very nice. Everything had been flowing pleasantly these past months, and then I eventually found about it thanks to the neighbors." I said.

"So, you didn't know anything about Columbine prior to this?"

"About Columbine? I presume you mean about everything that happened in that school. No, I didn't know".

"And if you don't mind me asking... What do you know so far?"

I told her what I knew thanks to Mr. Miller, and that when I googled Eric, I had restricted myself to glance at a few pictures. I hadn't gone to any website to look for more info, or anything.

Lisa told me everything that Eric and his friend Dylan had done, everything that I didn't know yet. She talked about bombs, and that's when I came to a conclusion. What I had found in my closet was indeed a freaking pipe bomb, and it was surely made by Eric. It must have been there all these years. Not only that, but she told me that the fucking basement used to be Eric's bedroom, and that literally all their macabre plans were developed in that stupid rabbit hole. Now I hated it...

A small group of clients came into the store, Lisa gave me her phone number and told me to text her whenever I needed anything or if I wanted to talk to someone.

As I drove headed home, I kept thinking about what my friend Olga had told me. I also thought about showing my father the pipe bomb, but he would probably call the police to tell them about it, and that could bring unwanted attention to our home. I didn't want to attract anything that could make this whole situation worse than it already was.

I finally arrived, and Caroline, my father, and I had dinner together. An uncomfortable silence roamed through the house.

"You have been very absent." said my father.

"I'm sorry dad, I just can't stop thinking about what the Millers said."

He asked hesitantly: "So, have you had another encounter with him...the...uh...ghost?"

"No, I fortunately haven't seen him. I hope he is gone for good." I said with a fake smile.

I went to my bedroom, unable to stop thinking that Eric would spend hours there, creating his master plan and plotting human extinction. Once again, I thought about what Olga told me, and since I had the pipe bomb, which I guess belonged to Eric, I tried something stupid... the so called "séance session."

Of course, nothing happened, maybe I was actually crazy and every single encounter with Eric had been product of my twisted imagination.

Next day, Caroline and I headed to school, the day felt like it lasted forever, and I slacked it in every single one of my classes.

We arrived home and asked dad what he wanted to eat.

Before mentioning a single word about food, he talked about Judy.

"Oh, you met her?" I asked.

"Yeah she's very nice." he said with an expression that I hadn't seen before. It was like excitement, but combined with something else, weird... I didn't wanna bother him, so I didn't say anything.

Then, he brought up the food talk, and I asked him if he wanted pizza. I told him that me and Caroline had gone to that Black Jack's place and it was super good. He said he was down to eat that, and he agreed to lend me the car once again so I could go get the pizza.

It didn't take long and started driving back home, suddenly a voice came from the backseat: "Peekaboo."

I almost crashed into a house, but was able to regain control of the car... It was Eric, it took me a while to recover from his stupid way of making an appearance. I asked what the hell he wanted.

"I used to work at that pizza place." he said.

"I didn't know the place was that old." I replied.

"Ouch, you're calling me old."

"Aren't you? If you were a high schooler in 1999, that means that you're or would be very close to being forty." I said.

"Someone has been doing their homework." said Eric with his usual mischievous smile.

I finally parked on the driveway and I said: "Go away, don't you have somebody else to haunt?"

"Ha! Whatever. You're the one that wanted me here." he said with a smirk.

"Yeah, and that was a total mistake." I replied.

"Well, here I am, and I'm gonna tell you what you need to do in order to help me."

"What do you need my help for?" I asked annoyed.

"So I can move on, cross over, go into the light, or whatever."

"Are you're like in the limbo, oblivion, or what the hell?"

"Yeah kinda like that. Anyways what I need you to do is...."

His voice vanished in the air, I turned around quickly, and he wasn't in the backseat anymore.

My father knocked on the car window and I jumped in surprise.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. What are you still doing out here? I saw you arrive a couple of minutes ago, I'm really hungry." dad said, probably trying not to sound like total a stalker.

"I was listening to my favorite song." I said with another fake smile.

For some reason I thought that the best option was to not tell him anything about what had just happened.

After diner, Caroline asked if I wanted to sleep in her bedroom. I declined her offer as I did most of the time. However, I went through another sleepless night in the basement. I had gotten the answer to some of my questions, now I knew that indeed Eric was a ghost and why he needed my help, but I still didn't know why he needed mine "specifically" like he mentioned. Also, what the hell did Eric want me to do for him?...


End file.
